[10] Some years afterwards, when he had become prosperous, he restored the money to Mr. Vernon, with interest to date.
[11] Vol. v. p. 201.
[12] Bigelow’s Works of Franklin, vol. iii. p. 216, note.
[13] This verse Franklin also quotes against Smith in a letter to Miss Stevenson. (Bigelow’s Works of Franklin, vol. iii. p. 235.)
[14] Bigelow’s Works of Franklin, vol. vii. p. 374.
IV
BUSINESS AND LITERATURE
Franklin’s ancestors in both America and England had not been remarkable for their success in worldly affairs. Most of them did little more than earn a living, and, being of contented dispositions, had no ambition to advance beyond it. Some of them were entirely contented with poverty. All of them, however, were inclined to be economical and industrious. They had no extended views of business enterprise, and we find none of them among the great merchants or commercial classes who were reaching out for the foreign trade of that age. Either from lack of foresight or lack of desire, they seldom selected very profitable callings. They took what was nearest at hand—making candles or shoeing horses—and clung to it persistently.
Franklin advanced beyond them only because all their qualities of economy, thrift, industry, and serene contentedness were intensified in him. His choice of a calling was no better than theirs, for printing was not a very profitable business in colonial times, and was made so in his case only by his unusual sagacity.